Search for 24-foot sailboat off Hilo Hawaii (Merged)

[ravinracin]

As far as calling the CG for help, Rimas sailed from Seattle to HI with no way to contact the CG. This trip a friend gave him the ability to keep in touch. So you can be sure he doesn't think he needs the means to ask for help. The $1400. in donations he received in HI he did put into the boat. All of you high and mighty 40 footers with all your toys think you own the ocean. Well it ain't so! It is just as much Rimas' as yours and he wants to sail on he sure can and sure is. I hope he inspires so many small boats to undertake such an adventure that their shadows keep your radar alarms going so much you can't sleep in your nice air conditioned cabins, that is if you leave your marinas. give the guy some credit for doing it and give him a break. Go Rimas!

[JPA Cate]

In a sense, this thread has turned into one about risk assessment and management. If the Russian's goal is to circumnavigate, his sailing into Pacific storm regions may just be his way of checking his readiness for Cape Horn.

As the gentleman from Annapolis wrote, pursuing a dream in a risky way.

Who in the heck are we to say he should not choose which risks he will accept?

Incidentally, the rescue organizations have to practice, we taxpayers pay for that practice; it only makes it more fun for them if they have a real victim.

There are still a few people who choose not to push the panic button and ask others to risk their lives to save them.

Subjects for thought.

[Mahana]

A few points to consider,

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

the rescue organizations have to practice, we taxpayers pay for that practice; it only makes it more fun for them if they have a real victim.

Fireman don't "practice" during conflagrations for a reason: it is dangerous. I doubt the Coast Guard considers it fun.

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

There are still a few people who choose not to push the panic button and ask others to risk their lives to save them.

The earlier news accounts from Washington state reported that Mr. Meleshyus had been previously rescued by the Coast Guard from the first SJ24 that he used (and lost).

[Andrew Troup]

Lots of pretty vigorous opinions being expressed here, and I can't help feeling they are fluttering from pretty sparse and slim strands of evidence.

[JPA Cate]

Mahana:

I do not have a statistical representation as backup: it's all hearsay from chatting with people who do the rescues: one, a Canadian S & R pilot; others coastal rescue personnel in New Zealand and Australia. Those kinds of men tell me it is more fun when it's real: they like the idea of saving people who otherwise might not be saved. In my opinion, that attitudes does them honor.

Ann

[Mahana]

Yes, I agree, the S&R folks I know also enjoy their job. My twin, who's a battalion chief, calls it an adrenaline rush, but it is tempered by a deep concern for safety of a rescue crew.

[SaltyMonkey]

We'll lets just all jump in the ocean in the next gale and have an s and l party!

[ravinracin]

He is still going! That flimsy little boat must be like a cork. Each night he says he is done sailing for the day and is going to bed. I guess he douses the sails, goes below and awaits daylight. No auto pilot, no wind vane. He must man the tiller about 12 hours a day. Grueling! Go Rimas!

[ravinracin]

Just did some calculations. 24 days at sea. 11114 nm covered over ground. average 46nm per day.

[socaldmax]

Determined to earn a place in history and secure personal fame — he would be the first to complete a voyage in a San Juan 24

Am I reading this correctly? No one has ever completed a voyage in that brand of boat? Just how bad is the thing? Holy crap! Talk about a ringing endorsement! LoL

[Andrew Troup]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

Am I reading this correctly? No one has ever completed a voyage in that brand of boat? Just how bad is the thing? Holy crap! Talk about a ringing endorsement! LoL

I think there is an implied "around the world" lurking somewhere in there, in invisible characters.

I don't personally see persuasive and cogent evidence that the guy is an accident waiting to happen, but it is certainly a tough aspiration he's bitten off.

[Steve Pope]

Sailors have sailed many miles in yachts of similar size to this one back post WW2, the thought that you needed a yacht in excess of 30 feet just wasn't considered necessary.
A friend has a Seabird yawl built in the 1950's that circumnavigated the pacific from NZ via New Guinea, Indonesia, Japan, Alaska,California, Hawaii, Samoa, and back to NZ. It might be hard for a "modern" sailor to accept that you can do something like that without watermakers, epirbs, ssb, etc etc. But they did and they took responsibility for themselves. No coastguard or rescue organisations to call back then, it was considered normal and often the only way that they could afford to see the world.
There are some very interesting books written about/or by some of these Seamen and their yachts and voyages undertaken.

[Andrew Troup]

Agreed, Steve, but their boats were generally built (and, in particular, rigged) much more strongly than what has been described as a production daysailer.

Hard to imagine these boats still crossing oceans in 2060, which is effectively what Trekka was doing until recently (20 feet long?)

- this was the boat which started the whole "smallest boat to circumnavigate" circuit, although Guzzwell did not particularly set out to prove any point; it was simply the boat he had, having earlier built it for himself from scratch, in the back of a fish and chip shop, after work, in under a year!)

Great talk here by present-day John himself, well worth listening to

John Guzzwell--Trekka Round The World - YouTube

[cal40john]

I've sailed on a San Juan 24 a few times and have done a weekend cruise on it. This is an IOR design, squirrelly downwind. I've read they're medium build quality. Not a boat I'd be excited about taking offshore due to the IOR heritage, but I haven't heard anything about them falling apart, 1000's were built.

This says the San Juan 24 was Bruce Kirby's first keelboat design:
http://www.sj21class.org/pdf/clark_boat.pdf

Someone apparently has done a circumnavigation.
From: Latitude 38 Letters - May 2006

I did MORA racing for 10 years with the little San Juan, including three races to San Diego, and a 36,000 mile circumnavigation. That '82 Farallones Race was the most grueling survival test of all.

[Steve Pope]

I think in most cases they used what they had, also in most cases they were reasonably skilled, the most important factor to me though is that they took responsibility for themselves. There was no safety / rescue industry, apart from the rules of the sea where seafarers looked out for each other. Unlike today where if things get a little unpleasant they think they can press a button and expect a helicopter sometime soon.